The first books to be translated were the five books of Moses, the Torah. In the following decades, the Prophets and the Scriptures followed, so that by about 100 BC the complete Hebrew Bible was available in Greek. The Septuagint was given an unexpected leading role in a new religious movement that was forming: Christianity.
In the first century AD, followers of Jesus of Nazareth began to interpret the Hebrew scriptures as prophecies about their teacher and his mission. Since Greek was the main language of the Roman Empire, and early Christians usually could not read Hebrew, they used the Septuagint as their source. This had major implications for how certain texts were understood.
A well-known example is Isaiah 7:14. In Hebrew it says that a 'alma' - a young woman - will become pregnant. The Greek translation, however, uses the word 'parthenos', which literally means "virgin". This fuelled among Christians the idea of a virgin birth, something not necessarily meant in the Hebrew context.
Also Isaiah 53, the famous chapter on the "suffering servant", was read by Christians as a direct reference to Jesus. In Jewish tradition, this chapter is often understood as describing the suffering people of Israel, not an individual Messiah. The Christian reading is heavily influenced by the Greek formulations in the Septuagint, in which some phrases are translated differently than in Hebrew.
Another difference we find in Psalm 22:17, where the Hebrew text says: "like a lion they are on my hands and feet". The Septuagint (and many Christian translations) says: "they pierced my hands and feet" - an image that seems to fit the crucifixion perfectly, but differs from the original Hebrew wording.
As Christianity developed, these translations and interpretations were incorporated into the canon of the church. In the fourth century, the church father Jerome made a Latin translation of the Bible by order of Pope Damascus: the Vulgata. Initially, he too used the Septuagint, but he later returned to Hebrew to find out the original meaning. This led to tension: some Christians wanted to stick to the familiar Greek texts, even if they deviated from Hebrew.
In the Middle Ages, the Vulgate remained the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Only during the Reformation did reformers such as Martin Luther start translating again from Hebrew and Greek, often with more attention to the source texts - but still within a Christian interpretive framework.
In summary, the translation of the Tanach into Greek began as a practical step for attainable doctrine, but grew into a theological milestone. The way the Greek Septuagint rendered certain Hebrew words and phrases had a profound influence on Christian doctrine. Many theological ideas central to Christianity - such as the virgin birth, the suffering of the Messiah and the resurrection - were shaped in part by translation choices made thousands of years ago and by misinterpretations or out-of-context readings of the texts/teachings.
Written by Sarah Bakker
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